Alwaght- Management style of new US Secretary of State has triggered criticism among his ministry staff, referring to Rex Tillerson as chief executive officer (CEO) rather than the Secretary of State.
The criticism is a reference to his experience as the CEO of an oil giant, Exxon Mobil and the managing style he has borrowed from that company.
One of Rex Tillerson's first directives as US secretary of state was an order to senior staff that his briefing materials not exceed two pages.
As a first-time government official with no prior diplomatic experience, Tillerson faces close scrutiny over how successful he will be in managing both the State Department bureaucracy and its relations with Donald Trump and his administration.
Senior State Department officials who have attended meetings with Tillerson say they find him sociable and a man of substance, whose direct manner and probing questions reflect his training as an engineer seeking to solve problems rather than play politics.
Tillerson still has no deputy after Trump rejected his top choice, Elliott Abrams.
"People want to back him," one veteran senior official said about the former Exxon Mobil boss. "But people are feeling that this building is being stripped," said the official, referring to a sense that with so many top positions vacant, the State Department is not fully equipped to help make policy in the new administration.
